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Comment by kqr2 | Hacker News Reader

Any more details on cost effectiveness? In this case the printer isn't the main cost but the ink.

https://store.novacentrix.com/category-s/1836.htm

The cost is probably not that bad on a per-unit basis, a 50mL seems like it should last for a pretty large number of PCBs. The problem is that the resulting PCBs are almost completely useless because you can't solder anything to them without melting the substrate.

The ink that works with standard inkjet printers just doesn't stick to materials like FR4 or kapton. There are specialized machines for printing conductive ink onto usable PCB substrates either with an extruder or screenprinting but they are at a minimum several thousand dollars and have extremely expensive consumables.

That explains why all of their examples are things like temperature sensors, humidity sensors, or antennas. I guess you stick wires on the paper using some sort of conductive glue?

There's silver epoxy but that's outrageously expensive.

Googling shows that you can add fine graphite powder to some kind of epoxy, to get something like that maybe.

Still glue is not super easy to control, and can't be used for fine traces. If the glue leaks across two pins, you can't just remelt it with a soldering iron.

Screen printing is a better choice for printing onto PCB surfaces. Copprint (an Israeli startup) has copper inks specificallý for FR4. Soldering is easier there...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1up5a7z6tjE

Another option is this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpObgG522sY

I would be also very interested in the costs. It certainly saves some time, but how does it compare to etching your PCBs at home?

Frankly I'd be more interested where you could print resistors, diodes, and transistors on plastic.

OLED manufacturers are apparently working on roll-to-roll printing on a plastic substrate.

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